Peter Ridsdale reveals two hour chat with Alan Browne as Preston North End offer at risk

Preston North End director Peter Ridsdale says Alan Browne was unsure on his future at the end of last season.

The Lilywhites could see their captain move on this summer, after 10 years at Deepdale and more than 400 appearances. Browne - who got married last weekend - has not signed a new deal at PNE yet. There have been tentative links to Sheffield United and Coventry City, as North End wait to learn their captain’s call.

Manager Ryan Lowe said Browne had been given a ‘deadline’ for a decision in mid-May, but nothing came out of that. Ridsdale, towards the end of last month, said he hadn’t heard from the skipper. Preston are having to work on midfield targets in the background and Ridsdale says the club will go through with those deals, should they progress.

“Is it strange? It rarely happens to be honest,” said Ridsdale. “Look, people think we haven’t spoken and you’ve got to be very careful what you say about private conversations. At the end of the season, we gave him an offer and it had a date for him from which to respond - which he agreed. That has long since passed. I spent an hour-and-a-half to two hours with him, at the end of the season, talking through what he wanted to do.

“And, he literally said he had no idea what he wanted to do. He couldn’t decide and wasn’t sure what to do - at an age where maybe he thought a change would be good because he’d been with us all his career. Then, on the other hand, depending on which day he woke up he wanted to stay and he would let us know. Since then, there was a flurry of activity the weekend before (last) for various reasons I don’t want to go into, when I spoke to him - not about football or his contract.

“I then sent him a ‘best wishes’ for his wedding last Friday and he sent me back ‘thanks a million’ - but there’s nothing really for me to add. I spent a lot of time with him, we knew where each other stood and I’ve said publicly we’re planning without him. That is what I am planning to do. I have got two players I met last week, both of whom are midfielders and both of whom are exciting. If we signed those two, we wouldn’t be bringing Alan back in, whatever he said.”